An unauthorized Cruise. Let the attacks begin!

Andrew Morton expected Scientology to have problems with his book. But
he's surprised by U.S. media reaction.

Globe and Mail, Australia/January 15, 2008

By Simon Houpt

New York - Andrew Morton looks like the sort of fellow who can take
care of himself. Imposingly tall and sleek, he answered the door to
his suite on a high floor of the London NYC Hotel yesterday morning
with a cautious smile and an offer of coffee. He needed the caffeine:
Having just arrived from London the day before to promote his
unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise, he was still working off his jet
lag and the previous night's alcohol. An old Fleet Street man who
looks younger than his 54 years, he's well versed in the ways of the
U.S. press, having encountered them during publicity for a pair of
biographies of Diana, Princess of Wales, written with her
co-operation, as well as an authorized 1999 Monica Lewinsky biography
and unauthorized tomes on Madonna, and David and Victoria Beckham. But
signs of nastiness were emerging.

In a post last week, NBC gossip Courtney Hazlett carried water for
Cruise's camp when she published their responses to the book. "At
best, Morton's book is a best-of collection of Cruise rumours, most of
which (if not all) have been refuted time and again. At worst, the
book appears to be a personal attack on Cruise and his family," she
wrote. On the weekend, a gossip at the New York Daily News wrote,
"Publishing sources say the one-time Princess Diana biographer
fabricated a lot of the book just to sell copies," though she provided
no specifics.

Morton's portrait of Cruise can be sharp and damning - he depicts him
as cold, calculating, manipulative and one who easily cuts off people
after they have outlived their usefulness - but he begins
sympathetically, noting that the movie star's childhood was a
rough-and-tumble one. Morton tracks the Cruise family to Ottawa, where
they lived for three years until they fled in the dead of night from
Cruise's father and relocated in Kentucky. Morton also speeds through
Cruise's chain of famous girlfriends, from Melissa Gilbert to Rebecca
De Mornay, Cher, Patti Scialfa, Penelope Cruz, and Sofia Vergara, as
well as the wives: Mimi Rogers, who introduced him to Scientology and
the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes.

The book, for which Morton received an advance of $200,000 ("It cost
me that much in research," he said) hits stores today with a print run
of 225,000. The following is an edited version of yesterday's
conversation:

Q: The book has already been attacked by Cruise's lawyers and
surrogates, and now it seems to be the target of gossip columnists
too. Last week, MSNBC seemed to be trying to discredit the book when
it mistakenly reported that you allege Suri Cruise was conceived using
the frozen sperm of the dead Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

A: I've found this very interesting. Normally, you do a book on the
British Royal Family and the British press go all sniffy. And now I've
done a book on American royalty and the American press have gone all
sniffy. There is a kind of knee-jerk deference amongst media towards
people that they consider royalty.

I had a pre-interview with The Today Show (Morton will appear live on
NBC this morning), which was pretty hostile. You know, "Why do you
call Scientology a cult? Shouldn't Tom be allowed to hold these
views?"

Q: You're staying in this hotel in New York under an assumed name,
apparently for security reasons.

A: Rather than have a whole bunch of Scientologists knocking on the
door at 3 in the morning, when I want some much-needed beauty sleep,
then I do that.

Q: Have you been harassed?

A: No, I've just had lots of hostile letters from Bert Fields, Tom
Cruise's lawyer, and also latterly from Scientology.

Q: You weren't granted an interview with either Tom Cruise or the
leader of Scientology, David Miscavige, but representatives at the
Church of Scientology did respond to some of your allegations.

A: Yeah, they obviously always respond [by denying the allegations].
The problem is, you don't know if they're telling the truth or not.

Q: The book has been pulled from publication back home in England.

A: Banned in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, and in fact there's a
whole campaign of free speech just starting up in Australia and New
Zealand as a result. I mean, it is terribly disappointing that this is
a man who has a specific agenda, supporting a faith which has a
specific agenda and wants to expand into these countries, Australia,
Great Britain, and yet you cannot have any kind of discussion of that,
for fear of legal retribution.

Q: Not really "banned," though.

A: Sorry, "banned" is probably the wrong phrase. It's not been
published because the [British] publishers, Pan-Macmillan, felt the
costs of defending any action outweighed any kind of freedom of
expression.

Q: Or the potential upside of sales.

A: Yes, and sales, absolutely. Yeah, sorry. And also because Britain
is known for libel tourism, that people who may not have a case in
America take their case to Britain, because Britain's got very tough
libel laws. Obviously, it limits freedom of expression.

Q: Do you think Cruise is a good actor?

A: I think he inhabits the screen in a way that very few people do,
and the very fact that he can hold an audience and has held an
audience for 25 years in a fickle world is a testament to his
abilities as an actor.

Q: You spent two years on the book. Why should we care about Cruise's
life to this extent?

A: I think it's perfectly legitimate to look at one of the world's
biggest stars, who provoked national debate as he did in 2005-2006,
with his attacks on Brooke Shields and psychiatry and so on, and just
ask yourself: Why does he get the space, why does he have that
platform, how does he get where he is? For me, the starting point was:
Why does a 43-year-old man, who's been married twice, jump up on a
couch on national TV, about a woman he's known for a few days, and why
does he go from soap opera to soapbox to then proselytize?

In fact, you oughta' try jumping onto a couch backwards. It's bloody
difficult. I just about did my leg in.

Q: Scientology may not like the way it's portrayed, but it seems to me
that Cruise should be pleased at least that you knock down the
persistent rumour that he's gay.

A: Bert Fields, in his many letters, went on and on about that: "If
you say he's gay, we're going to sue." Well, actually, Bert, we know
he's not gay, we're not interested. But, I mean, it's like an
obsession on their side. Quite frankly, Tom Cruise has become
something of a laughingstock over the last couple of years, and I have
actually done him the service of treating him as a character seriously
and treating his faith seriously, and trying to get a sensible book
about an important character.

Q: You do treat his faith seriously. Certainly, without Scientology
you don't have a book.

A: Well, without Scientology we don't have Tom Cruise. That's the
point, that Tom Cruise and Scientology are inextricably linked. His
trajectory as a film actor is quite remarkable - the fact that he's
been able to stay at the top for, what, 25 years?

But what I find more interesting is that he's morphed from being one
of the more outstanding film actors of his generation to this kind of
celebrity advocate on behalf of his faith. It seems to me it's a
meshing of new celebrity and new faith, and we live in an age of
celebrity, whether we like it or not, and he somehow represents the
spirit of the times.

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